Accidents
by QuickWren
Summary: "I visited your parents' basement a few nights ago." Vlad's voice grew grim. "I found some data that was...unnerving. Disturbing, to be frank." -No longer a ONESHOT- Reveal fic! Please read and review! COMPLETED!
1. Chapter 1

**Hi everyone. New story- I hope you like it. It's a oneshot. Please remember to review when you're done. I'd love to know what you thought!**

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"Enough already, you foolish child. I am not here to fight you." Red eyes burned bright against pale blue-grey skin, and Vlad's fangs gleamed as he snarled into the night. "If you would just listen for a damned minute, you wouldn't be so hurt."

A forced laugh came from Danny's wheezing lungs, and the boy tried to hide the flinching caused by his bruised ribs. With a weak smile to mask the pain, Phantom called back, "You think you hurt me? You're crazier than I thought! This is nothing, Fruitloop."

Vlad sighed, his face tired, and dismissed the taunt with a flick of his hand. "I should have known better than to try and reason with a child. Fine." The man turned. "I'll leave."

Danny blinked, his mouth parting in shock. "Wha...really?" He pressed his hand gingerly against his ribcage, scowling at the hot pain that shot up his side. Though he didn't want to admit it, he had been the one who had started the fight. And Vlad had been telling him to stop...

"Yes, really. I'll go. Unless you've finally decided that you want to hear what I have to say?"

The younger halfa's eyes narrowed. "Speak."

Vlad huffed, his upper lip raised. "I visited your parents' basement a few nights ago."

Danny's eyebrows shot up. "Your mom kick you out of hers?"

Vlad's fists clenched and in an instant he had closed the distance between them, leaving little more than an inch of space. "Silence." His eyebrows furrowed, and Danny could see the other man's jaw begin to grind. "I have no more patience for this childish behavior. Already you have wasted an hour of my time. I came here for your sake, not mine, and if you will not watch your tongue, I will depart without telling you anything. Am I understood?"

"Crystal clear, captain." Danny floated backwards, his arms crossed. He watched as Vlad collected himself by taking a deep breath. "Well?" Phantom pressed, annoyed. "If you're so busy, get on with it."

The red light in Vlad's eyes gleamed again in anger, but the man kept his calm and repeated, "I visited your parents' basement a few nights ago." When Danny did not interrupt, Vlad went on. "I was looking into the blueprints for their ghost portal. I was having a curious problem with my own and wanted to compare notes, you see. However, I found more than just the specs for the parts I was interested in." Vlad's voice grew grim. "I also found some data that was...unnerving. Disturbing, to be frank."

Despite his hesitance to trust the older man, Danny felt a nervous lump form in his throat. "What did you find?"

"There's a lot of science behind the figures I saw that you wouldn't understand, and I don't have the years it would take to explain it to you." Danny felt his anxious fear subside into irritation. "However," Vlad continued, "I will say this. There were a lot of specifications built into your parents' ghost portal that are not included in my own. That is because these specifications are not necessary for creating contact between the two worlds. Requirements such as inter-plate capacitance and ambient ecto-flow would not need to be held to a precise level if the only goal was to create a portal to the Ghost Zone."

Danny snorted, rolling his eyes dramatically. "So my parents build in some extra features. What's the big deal?"

"The big deal, Daniel, is that while these extra feature play no role in creating a portal, they do play a very important role in the creation of a halfa."

Danny froze, his breathing coming to a halt. "What?" he asked as his eyebrows furrowed.

"It's simple, my boy. When your parents made their first portal, they created me. The odds of your bumbling idiot father creating the perfect environment for the creation of a halfa are one in a hundred million. Slight, but real. But, to create these circumstances unintentionally twice... Impossible."

Danny swallowed hard. Though he knew he didn't want to hear Vlad's answer, the boy couldn't help but to mutter, "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that your little portal accident... was no accident."

And Vlad's face deadpanned, his smug arrogance gone. With a tight lipped grimace on his face, the older man turned and took his leave.

And for the first time, Danny had no witty comeback.

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**What'd you think? Also, if you'd like to use this idea in a story of your own, please do! Just let me know so I can read it! Thanks!**


	2. Chapter 2

**I wasn't intending to continue this story. But I did. :/ There's only one chapter after this and it's done, though. I swear!**

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"I've had...a really weird day."

Jazz had been at her desk, working on a report for her advanced literature course with her head buried in a textbook, when her brother had spoken. Though she was no longer shocked by his sudden appearances or his phasing through walls, the older sister had been mildly surprised at the words that Danny had spoken.

Turning to face him, Jazz watched him hover a foot over her bed as he changed from Phantom to Fenton, falling into her pillows once the transformation was complete. Danny stretched himself out, wrinkling her neatly placed blue-green sheets. His face was tired, and Jazz watched his chest slowly rise as he took a deep breathe.

"You wanna talk about it?"

He exhaled, slow and long. "I don't know."

Jazz crossed her arms. "I think you do." When her brother glanced over, his eyebrow raised, she added, "Why else would you have come to me?"

Danny looked away, lifting his arms upward so he could study his fingers. "I'm just not sure what to make of it. Vlad was harassing me and he said something that I can't really wrap my head around."

"Yeah?" Jazz tugged her hair back behind her ear and placed a pensive hand beneath her chin. "What'd he say?"

"He said that Mom and Dad purposely built the portal in a way that would make a halfa." Lowering his arms, Danny propped himself up on his right elbow, turning to face his sister once again. "He said they added things to it that have nothing to do with connecting to the Ghost Zone- things that are only important for turning people into half ghosts."

Jazz wrinkled her nose. "Do you believe him?"

Her brother fell back with a huff. "I don't know," he echoed again.

When Jazz remained silent, Danny continued. "I don't know what to believe. I can see why Vlad would lie. He would just love to drive a wedge between me and Dad. But on the other hand, I can also understand why Mom and Dad would try and experiment with the creation of a halfa. For science or research or something."

"And you think they'd be willing to use you, their son, as a test subject?" There was no accusation to Jazz's tone. Just a single, monotonous question.

And Danny felt his forehead wrinkle and his eyes narrow in frustrated confusion. "Do you?"

Jazz was silent for a long moment, steady eyes watching her brother with uneasy thoughts. She bit her lip and swallowed hard, then spoke.

"I don't know."

"Yeah, me neither."

"So," the girl pressed, "now what?"

"You think I should..." Danny's voice trailed off for a moment, but he pushed himself to continue. "You think I should ask them?"

"But how?" Jazz stood, pacing herself over to her bed where she sat beside her brother. "Would you tell them you're Phantom?"

"I mean," Danny's voice was quiet as he thought it over, "I have been meaning to tell them. Plus, if this really was on purpose, then..." Hesitant eyes shifted towards the older girl. "...then they would already know, right?"

"What are you going to do, if it really was an accident, and they didn't know?"

"The same thing I was going to do before Vlad caused this whole mess. Explain as best as I can and hope they understand."

"And," Jazz pushed, "if it wasn't?"

Thoughts of battle scars and broken bones flashed through Danny's mind. All the unjust detentions, all the targeting weapons, all the sleepless nights- intentional. It was one thing when he didn't have a choice, so he decided to use his powers for good. It was another to be forced to play the hero.

A hard lump formed in the ghost boy's throat.

"I don't know."

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**Expect the last chapter by the end of the week. If you liked it, let me know what you thought. Review! :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**I lied. This isn't the last chapter. There will be one more after.**

**Enjoy!**

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Danny trooped downstairs towards the kitchen where he knew his mother to be, while Jazz followed closely behind. A long, shaky breath escaped him as they reached the bottom step, and suddenly his feet felt far heavier than before. Standing in the doorway to the staircase, he found it impossible to move.

What was he doing? Giving up his secret over Vlad's silly conspiracy theory?! Danny felt like he was going insane- maybe he was the Fruitloop now.

Then again, where was the harm in letting his parents know? They'd always supported him before. Nothing about him had changed, he was just a little... extra, now. They would still love him. They'd just be a little surprised.

Unless they weren't surprised. Because they had done this to him- turned him into some half human freak. What then? Should he forgive them? Did he even need to- there was nothing wrong with being Phantom.

But, if he'd had the choice, would this have been the life he'd have picked? Maybe.

Maybe not.

A light touch on his shoulder made Danny jump, shocking him from his thoughts. Jazz was there, on the step above him, eyeing him with concern. "You alright? You don't have to do this, you know. We can wait until you're ready."

Danny shook his head. "I'll never be ready." He had his doubts, and it was possible that he might not be making the right choice, but it felt like the only option he had that would accomplish anything. So he inhaled a deep breathe and took a step forward. "Let's do this."

Danny stepped into the kitchen and watched his mom as she hummed to herself, trying to prepared a glowing meatloaf for their upcoming dinner. He approached the counter she was working at, his eyes darting back to watch Jazz hover behind him for support, and then spoke. "Hey Mom," he started, trying to sound calm. "where's Dad? I wanna talk to you guys."

His mother nodded and smiled, using her free hand to ruffle his hair. "He should be upstairs soon. I told him dinner was almost ready a few minutes ago."

A lump formed in his throat and Danny nodded, trying to hide his relief, however temporary it may be. His mother was more perceptive than he gave her credit for, though, because when she noticed his expression, she said, "What did you want to talk about?" Her nose scrunched up, not dissimilar to the way Jazz's did when she was thinking. "Are you in trouble at school again?"

"Ah, no, it's nothing like that." Danny frowned, and he could hear his heart beat pick up. "I've actually been wanting to talk to you guys for a while, I've just been... putting it off."

Maddie's eyes seemed to widen a bit, but it only lasted an instant, so quick that it might have just been a trick Danny's mind was playing on him. Seconds later, his mom was back to her disinterested humming, her hands shuffling to grab a knife to slice the meatloaf. "Danny, honey, why don't you go get your father? The food's ready, and you know how he's so easily distracted."

"Uh, right," Danny nodded. He glanced at his sister as he moved towards the lab, and Jazz was frowning lightly, though she did not speak. Calling down to the basement, Danny summoned his father to dinner. "Dad, it's time to eat."

Loud thumps could be heard as the burly man ran up the stairs. "Heyo, Danny-boy!" Jack bellowed as he reached the kitchen and hurled an arm around his son's shoulders. "What're we having?"

"Uh, meatloaf."

Jack grinned wider, and then shot puppy-eyes to his wife. "And for dessert?"

"There's fudge in the fridge," Maddie chuckled.

"Yes!" The grown man have a happy dance.

"Riiiight." Danny pursed his lips together. "Anyways, what I was saying before." Jack turned to the boy, his eyes wide with curiosity. Danny looked at him and smiled weakly. "I've, uh, been meaning to talk with you and mom for a while now, but there hasn't ever been a good time so I thought... why not now?"

Blinking in surprise, Jack's grin fell, and for a moment he locked eyes with Maddie. The mother nodded once and sighed. Jack turned back to his son.

A corny grin appeared on the father's face. "Is this about Sam? Is that what you're trying to say?"

Danny blanched. "Wh...what?"

"Oh, I've been meaning to tell you about the birds and the bees, son. I just didn't want t-"

"No!" Danny cried, taking a step back. "No, that's not it at all."

"Shh, son, love is a beautiful thing," Jack carried on. "There's no need to be embarrassed."

"Stop, stop!" Danny called, waving his hands. "That's not what I was going to say. What I'm trying to tell you is way, WAY different. It's actually about gho-"

"Dinner's ready!" Maddie called, rubbing her hands together and smiling at the glowing green meatloaf with pride. "Eat up!"

A grimace formed on Danny's face as he stared at her, frozen with disbelief.

"Don't just stand there, Danny-boy!" Jack called, his voice booming. "It'll get cold!"

It took a moment for Danny to untense, but when he did, his shoulders slumped in defeat and he moved over to his plate.

Maybe it wasn't meant to be.

"You know." Jazz's voice was quiet, and Danny started to hear her speak- he'd forgotten that she was there. "You both know."

"I don't know what you mean, sweetie," Maddie's voice seemed tight but her face was calm.

"You won't let him get a word in edge-wise." Jazz crossed her arms. "Every time Danny starts to tell you, you guys change the subject. You're not letting him tell you."

"Because you already know," Danny murmured, his eyes widening in understanding.

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**Let me know what you thought! Review!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Here it is! Final chapter!**

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"Why?" Danny was shocked at how calm he sounded. Inside his head, his thoughts were spinning. But his body reacted on instinct, keeping his appearance collected. "I just want to know why."

Maddie's eyes were on her plate, watching the meatloaf shimmer. "I don't know what you're asking me, dear," she replied, though there was no conviction to her tone.

Placing a gentle hand on her brother's shoulder, Jazz's eyes flickered between her parents with solemn disbelief. She squeezed her hand, and the boy looked towards her. She nodded to him, an unspoken command to continue, so Danny sighed and faced the adults.

"I'm Phantom," he said quietly, the rings forming around his chest unbidden. The light flashed, blue-white, throughout the room, burning into their eyes and memories like an eternal flame. When the light faded, Phantom remained in Fenton's place. "But you already knew that, didn't you."

Jack and Maddie kept their eyes on their plates.

"So, let me ask again- why?" The burning in the pit of Danny's stomach ached a little hotter, and he could feel the energy pushing him into the air, his feet now several inches off the ground. "Why did you do this to me?"

Maddie looked up, surprise flitting across her face. "How..." Her nose wrinkled again, and she glanced over to Jack, who was now watching her carefully. "What makes you think we did thi-"

"I'm not your only test subject." Danny muttered under his breath, dismissing his mother, directing a scornful snarl at his boots. His head snapping up, Danny's voice regained its volume. "Vlad. Remember? I might not understand all of the ecto-capacitance-flow nonsense that you built into the portal, but he does. He's the one who figured it out." The boy inhed a breath through his teeth.

Damn.

Vlad had turned out to be more trustworthy than his own parents.

The thought was like a hard pane of glass, shattering his thoughts back to earth. All the energy drained from the boy, and Danny suddenly felt very tired. The rings surged around his chest again and he dropped back to the floor once more, now as a regular, exhausted human. "Just tell me why."

"Danny, it's not-" Maddie's voice wavered when Jack reached out and took her hands in his.

The man shook his head, shrugging sheepishly at her. "It's time to be honest, Mads." The man turned to face his son. "It all started back with Vlad's accident. And it really was an accident, son.

"You see, Vlad's condition was not as secret as he would have liked to believe." Jack gave a chuckle, though there was no humor in it. "He was unconscious for five days, all of which were spent in a hospital. In that time, your mother, the staff and I often found him floating above his bed or glowing a brilliant shade of red. It was quite fascinating."

"We didn't know what the protocol for a situation like this was, or if any even existed," Maddie spoke up. "So when the doctors told us they had contacted the government, we didn't know what to expect."

"You have got to be kidding me." Danny's voice deadpanned. He knew exactly where this was going.

His father nodded. "The Guys in White met with us on the third day of Vlad's stay. They informed us of their organization, their jobs, and their goals. And then, after they took a look at Vlad and recorded some data, they requested our research."

Danny's teeth began to grind together. "And you gave it to them?" His parents didn't reply. "Really? Seriously?! Not once did it occur to you that they would use that information to hurt people? They're heartless. That data was probably the basis for them to start human experiments." He could feel the disgust building in the back of his mind. His voice grew soft but dark as the horror of the situation dawned on him, "They probably killed hundreds trying to duplicate what happened with Vlad."

His mother coughed, looking away with shameful eyes. "We had considered... but... we never thought..." Her voice trailed off, her sentence unfinished. She looked up, instead saying, "They hadn't told us that they would be hurting people." Her son shot her a look of disbelief. "You're right, though. We knew very well that they would try to... try to recreate the accident. But," she continued weakly, "they offered us a very generous research grant. We were broke. We couldn't say no to that kind of money."

Outrage boiled inside Danny's skull. "And then what?!" The boy felt Jazz's hand brush against his shoulder once again, and when he turned to look at her, he could see his eyes glowing an angry green in the reflection of her own. The shock of it snapped him out of his rage, and his eyes faded to blue. Turning back to his parents, he repeated, softer this time, "And then what? When they couldn't figure it out, they paid you to do it again? And you picked your son to test it out on?"

Danny gave a dry huff when they still remained silent. "It's like you don't even care."

"That's not what happened!" Jack's voice was booming when he finally replied, and an angry fist slammed against the table. "It was never supposed to be you! We were going to get some other researcher or hunter to take a look around!" Jack's voice began to grow quieter. "But we didn't build in a fail safe." His head dropped, his eyes boring holes into the kitchen counter. "We just programmed it to go off whenever it detected body heat. We didn't know you would go inside. It was never supposed to detect you." When Danny did nothing to reply but stare, Jack added, "They offered us 10 times the amount that they had given us before. Enough for you two to go to college. Enough for your kids, and your kids' kids, even."

Danny's limbs felt heavy and his eyes went dull. "Yeah. At least we're rich." Shaking his head slowly, the boy made his ways to the stairs. "Was it worth it?" He called down as he climbed to his room.

His parents didn't reply.

From up in his room, Danny could hear the muffled shouts of Jazz and his parents beginning to argue. He tuned it out and, with a heavy heart, started to pack up his things.

Ten minutes later, he heard a tapping on his bedroom door. Danny opened his mouth to speak, but before he had a chance to tell his parents off, Jazz stuck her head into his room.

"Oh," he muttered. "It's you."

The girl's nose twitched, and she watched as her brother piled another load of clothes into a duffel bag.

The boy continued to speak. "You know, I think I could have understood, if they'd done it for science. I don't know that I'd have been happy about it, but," Danny scowled at his bag, "at least then I might have believed that they'd been trying to help the world. Create a link to the other side, establish peace, something, anything!" Danny looked up at his sister, and saw the tears pooling in her eyes. "But not this. Not for money.

"And the Guys in White, no less," the boy continued. "You know as well as I do the sort of things the GIW's have done." The boy gave a 'tck'. "Our parents got people killed... for money." Tossing one last shirt into his bag, Danny zipped up the duffel.

The red head gave a tight-lipped shrug. The tears were starting to slide down onto her cheeks. "They never wanted to hurt you, you know." Danny didn't look up from his bag. "Whenever they hunted you, all their shots missed. That's pretty astonishing, seeing as how they've been hunting ghosts for 30 years, right? They were never trying to hit you." Jazz's voice was little more than a whisper. "They refused to give the GIW their data the second time, when they realized you were in danger. Plus, all the times when their weapons targeted you and went off in the house... I think those were legitimate mistakes, Danny."

"I get that, Jazz," Danny muttered as he glanced up to his sister, watching a wayward tear drop from her chin. "But just because they didn't want to hurt me doesn't make this okay." He shook his head. "I don't know what to believe, but I do know that I can't stay here. I need some time away. To think."

"Where are you going?" Jazz asked meekly, even though she already knew. Another set of tears leaked from her eyes.

"Wisconsin." Her brother shot her a pained grin. "You wanna come?"

The girl shook her head. "They're a mess, Danny. Absolutely broken. You didn't see them but they're falling apart." Danny rolled his eyes with a snort. "I know," was Jazz's reply to his nonverbal response. "And I really don't want to stay either, but... I can't leave. They're our parents."

"I know," Danny nodded, smiling a little stronger. "You're too good to walk away. That's just who you are."

"Call me when you get there. I wanna know you're safe."

Danny nodded again and lifted his bag on his shoulder. With a flash of blue light, he was flying through his bedroom wall and into the night.

An hour and a half later, the boy found himself standing outside the large oak door to Vlad's mansion. He took a deep breath, let out a soft, disgruntled groan, and rang the doorbell.

When Vlad answered, his expression was expectant.

"You were right," Danny muttered.

"I know," was Vlad's reply.

"Just because I'm here doesn't mean I'm on your side now. I just... need a place to crash for a couple days. Just until I sort this mess out."

Vlad smirked, though the humor didn't quite meet his eyes. "Yes, I know."

When the boy huffed and shuffled inside, Vlad added, "You're welcome to stay as long as you'd like, though."

Danny pulled out his phone to call Jazz and sighed heavy, though the slight tug of a smile that twitched at his face was the first genuine one of the night.

"I know."

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**Alright, this is the end. I hope you all had as much fun reading this as I had writing it. If you did, be sure to review and let me know! I've also got two other DP stories, if you're looking for other short fics to read.**

**Until next time,**

**-Wren**


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